Gulf Coast Marks a Year Since Katrina

By ANNE KORNBLUT and ADAM NOSSITER

Published: August 29, 2006

As bells rang out through the streets, citizens gathered for prayer services and residents hung banners in front of their tattered homes to commemorate the anniversary of the storm, Mr. Bush sought to do what he had not accomplished a year earlier: Demonstrate his depth of understanding about the emotional and physical toll Katrina took on New Orleans.

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President Bush, still at pains to demonstrate his concern over the devastation of Hurricane Katrina a full year after the storm, said he took "full responsibility" for the slow federal response to the disaster as he made a carefully choreographed pilgrimage on Tuesday to the city that suffered most.

As bells rang out through the streets, citizens gathered for prayer services and residents hung banners in front of their tattered homes to commemorate the anniversary of the storm, Mr. Bush sought to do what he had not accomplished a year earlier: Demonstrate his depth of understanding about the emotional and physical toll Katrina took on New Orleans.

"I've come back to New Orleans to tell you the words that I spoke on Jackson Square are just as true today as they were then," he told a largely friendly audience at the Warren Easton Senior High School, referring to his major nighttime address on the storm last September. That speech, itself a carefully planned event that came after most of the victims had died, was seen as a turning point by White House advisers who recognized the political damage done by the flawed government reaction.

"I have returned to make it clear to people that I understand we're marking the first anniversary of the storm, but this anniversary is not an end. And so I come back to say that we will stand with the people of southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi until the job is done," he said.

Speaking at a former public school that had been rebuilt as a charter school since the storm, Mr. Bush reiterated his acceptance that he, ultimately, was responsible for the federal handling of the hurricane that killed more than 1,700 people around the Gulf area and left hundreds of thousands displaced. "I take full responsibility for the federal government's response, and a year ago I made a pledge that we will learn the lessons of Katrina and that we will do what it takes to help you recover," Mr. Bush said, drawing applause from the crowd.

He also said he would try to get Louisiana a greater share of offshore oil revenues, and urged businesses to return to the region.

In repeated nods to the city's extraordinary cultural past, Mr. Bush visited the home of the music legend Fats Domino in the Lower Ninth Ward and listened to a brass band. He talked about restoring the "soul" of New Orleans, even as he was forced to acknowledge that much of the damage had not yet been repaired. The city, he said, was calling its children home.

"I know you love New Orleans, and New Orleans needs you," Mr. Bush said. "She needs people coming home. She needs people -- she needs those saints to come marching back, is what she needs."

But he did not stray far from his script, nor venture spontaneously out of his motorcade as it sped past some of the worst destruction in the city's Lower Ninth Ward, where rows of gutted homes stood empty along deserted streets.

Instead, in a series of upbeat events designed to underscore progress, Mr. Bush struck an optimistic - and at times almost defiant - tone. He portrayed the anniversary as a starting point, deflecting questions about slow results. And although he was faced with several detractors throughout the day, including a large banner that read "Bush Failure" as his motorcade drove past, Mr. Bush kept his focus on future improvements. He met privately with several residents, but the White House did not disclose their conversations.

Away from the presidential tour, there was private weeping at some of the ruins of the Lower Ninth Ward, and at City Hall bereaved family members signed a giant banner with hundreds of fleur de lis, the city's symbol, one for each victim. At exactly 9:38 a.m., Mayor C. Ray Nagin sounded a large silver bell on the City Hall steps to mark the catastrophic first levee breach.

Huddling with loved ones at home, attending a ceremony in the heat, or simply working on their houses, every citizen, it seemed, was reflecting Tuesday on the disaster one year ago that altered a way of life here for a good long while, if not forever.

In its warm and breezy quiet, it was a day so unlike the one filled with violent winds and somber hints of catastrophe of a year ago. Out in the neighborhoods Tuesday, work went on, painfully and defiantly, in the 100 degree-plus heat. Plunging on ahead with rebuilding, as more than one demonstrated they were doing Tuesday, was a way of remembering too - of not being conquered by the long-tentacled disaster and its aftermath. Several said there were far more important things to be done this day than attending one of the downtown events.

"All this stuff on TV and all, nobody in this city has time to fool with that," said John Parker, a musician, outside his house, which took in over four feet of water, on a ruined block of Upperline Street. "I figured it's a good day to get the ball rolling on fixing the house," he said. "So I got up and made an appointment with our electrician." He and his wife gutted the place months ago, but are still months away from moving back.

As bells rang out through the streets, citizens gathered for prayer services and residents hung banners in front of their tattered homes to commemorate the anniversary of the storm, Mr. Bush sought to do what he had not accomplished a year earlier: Demonstrate his depth of understanding about the emotional and physical toll Katrina took on New Orleans.